Even the playoff teams lose a game they shouldn’t. New Orleans just lost to Tampa Bay. The Eagles also lost to the Raiders.

No, the reasons why the Broncos are in this spot is because they failed to win any one of these four games _ The Redskins, Raiders, Colts and Eagles.

Kyle Orton injury or not, the Broncos beat the Redskins if they would have rushed the punter on the tipped-off faked punt.

They had fourth-and-10 against the Raiders and JaMarcus Russell. And they couldn’t come up with a play to stop the NFL’s worst quarterback

The Broncos had the Colts beaten. They had all the momentum. They had Peyton Manning throwing interceptions. And they couldn’t finish.

They had the Eagles beaten. They had all the momentum. Donovan McNabb was reeling. And the Broncos couldn’t finish.

Even in their lopsided losses to the Ravens and Steelers, the Broncos were in the game until the fourth quarter.

The Broncos had to find a way to win one _ just one _ of those games. They didn’t win any.

I heard Mark Schlereth on the radio the other day. He said that coach Joe Gibbs always said that talent helps your team through the first three quarters. But you’ve got to have that all-for-one, team-before-self character to win games in the fourth quarter.

Much of the Broncos’ devastating slide _ only two other teams, St. Louis and Detroit, have a worst record than 2-7 over their past nine games _ can be blamed on the fourth quarter.

If Joe Gibbs knows what he’s talking about, then it’s fair to ask: What happened to that team character that was such a big part in the Broncos pulling out games late during their 6-0 start?